1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to optical telecommunications and more particularly to the deployment of photonic integrated circuits (PICs), in particular, optical receiver photonic integrated circuits (RxPICs) and optical transmitter photonic integrated circuits (TxPICs) utilized in optical transport or transmission networks.
2. Description of the Related Art
The employment of photonic integrated circuits (PICs), also sometimes referred to as planar lightwave circuits (PLCs), are on the rise in optical telecommunication systems. These devices provide the integration of both active and passive optical components on a single substrate and are integrated with other optical components to form a multi-functional optical device for use in such systems. The gravitation to PICs is strong because it leads to utility of providing an entire system function, let alone a component function, in a single chip in a single package. Compared to the deployment of discrete optical components, such monolithic PIC chips can significantly reduce the size of optical components necessary in the optical system, albeit an optical transmitter (TxPIC) or optical receiver (RxPIC), for example, as well as significantly reduce the over cost of the system.
Optical PICs are already known in the art. As related to an optical receiver on a chip, the article to M. Zimgibl et al. entitled, “WDM receiver by Monolithic Integration of an Optical Preamplifier, Waveguide Grating router and Photodiode Array”, ELECTRONIC LETTERS, Vol. 31(7), pp. 581-582, Mar. 30, 1995, discloses a 1 cm by 4 mm PIC chip, fabricated in InP, that includes the integrated components comprising an optical amplifier (SOA) optically coupled to an AWG DEMUX having a plurality of different signal channel outputs each coupled to a respective photodiode (PD) in an array of on-chip photodiodes. The SOA boosts the multiplexed input channel signals. The AWG DEMUX demultiplexes the signals into separate channel signals which signals are respectively detected by the array of PDs. The optical receiver chip may also be placed on a thermoelectric cooler (TEC) so that the spectral response or wavelength grid of the AWG can be fine tuned. A similar PIC chip configuration is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,913,000 to Doerr et al. but relates to a laser structure without an array of photodiodes, but rather an array of second optical amplifiers in their place, and where the PIC chip facets include reflective mirror surfaces to form multiple laser cavities. Further, an article to C. Cremer et al. entitled, “Grating Spectrograph Integrated with Photodiode Array in InGaAsP/InGaAs/InP”, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, Vol. 4(1), pp. 108110, January 1992, discloses a 4 mm by 7 mm InGaAsP/InP chip comprising a grating demultiplexer integrated with a photodiode array. The grating demultiplexer comprises a slab waveguide having multiple input waveguides and output waveguides to and from the slab. The slab has one end as a reflective mirror and, thus, “mirrors” one half of a full slab waveguide structure. The output waveguides from the slab are respectively coupled to an array of photodiodes integrated on the InP chip. See also the papers of J. B. Soole et al., Integrated Grating demultiplexer and PIN array for High Density Wavelength Division Multiplexed Detection at 1.5 mm”, ELECTRONIC LETTERS, Vol. 29, pp. 558-560, 1993; M. R. Amersfoort et al., “Low-Loss Phased-Array Based 4-Channel Wavelength Demultiplexer Integrated with Photodetectors”, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, Vol. 6(1), pp. 62-64, January 1994; and S. Chandrasekhar et al., “Monolithic Eight-Wavelength Demultiplexed Receiver for Dense WDM Applications”, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, Vol. 7(11), pp. 1342-1344, November 1995.
A combination WDM/PD array is shown in the article of F. Tong et al. entitled, “Characterization of a 16-Channel Optical/Electronic Selector for Fast Packet-Switched WDMA Networks”, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, Vol. 6(8), pp. 971-974, August 1994, except that, in the case here, the InGaAs/GaAs PDs are on a separate chip integrated with electronic transimpedance amplifiers, selectable switches and output limiting amplifier. Light generated from the multiple output waveguides of a separate AWG DEMUX chip is focused through a lens array to the array of photodetectors or photodiodes (PDs).
See also the article of B. Glance et al. entitled, “Applications of the Integrated Waveguide Grating Router”, Journal of Lightwave Technology, Vol. 12(6), pp. 957-962, June 1994, which shows multiple applications for AWG devices with multiple inputs/outputs and their integration with various types of active components.
In some of the foregoing disclosures, optical semiconductor amplifiers (SOAs) are employed to boost the incoming channel signals such as from an optical link. Thus, the first on-chip optical component is an active component comprising an SOA to amplify the channel signals. Since these signals are of different wavelengths, however, the gain of the SOA is not equally distributed to all of the channel signals and, as a result, the signals to be amplified do not receive the same gain. This is a problem because the signals should have substantially equal intensity or power before they are demultiplexed; otherwise, some of the channel signals will have significantly degraded BER due to the dynamic range of the receiver photodiodes and transimpedance amplifiers.